The arithmetic sequence $(a_i)$ is defined by the formula: $a_i = 5 - 3(i - 1)$ What is $a_{16}$, the sixteenth term in the sequence?
Explanation: From the given formula, we can see that the first term of the sequence is $5$ and the common difference is $-3$ To find $a_{16}$ , we can simply substitute $i = 16$ into the given formula. Therefore, the sixteenth term is equal to $a_{16} = 5 - 3 (16 - 1) = -40$.